NWA Democrat-Gazette wins 31 awards

The staff of the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette won 31 awards, including 10 first-place awards, in the Arkansas Press Association’s Better Newspaper contest for work published in 2016.

The Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette won first place in the general excellence category for larger daily newspapers, and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette placed second. General excellence is decided on a point system for each first, second and third place award.

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette also won 10 firstplace awards.

The newspapers, both owned by WEHCO Media Inc., competed in the larger dailies division except in the investigative reporting and editorial cartoonist categories, in which all newspapers were judged together.

The annual awards were judged by the Oklahoma Press Association from 1,654 entries from 50 newspapers. The awards were announced at the Arkansas Press Association’s annual convention, which was held at the Doubletree Hotel in Little Rock.

First place winners from the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette are:

Best Beat Reporter: Doug Thompson.

Sports Feature Story: Chip Souza.

Humorous Column: Gary Smith.

Single Sports Action Photograph: Anthony Reyes.

Single Sports Feature Photograph: Jason Ivester.

Best Front Page: Chris Swindle, Megan Lewis-Reed.

Best Sports Page: Swindle, Josh Cook, Blake Drehle.

Coverage of Tourism: Melissa Gute, April Wallace, Stacy Ryburn.

Coverage of Health/Medical: Dan Holtmeyer, Thompson.

Other Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette winners are:

News Story: second place, Thompson, Scarlet Sims.

Feature Story: third place, Thompson.

In-Depth Series: third place, Thompson, Holtmeyer, Lara Hightower.

Best Beat Reporter: second place, Ryburn

Sports News Story: second place; Rick Fires, Vernon Tarver.

Sports Feature Story: honorable mention, Souza.

Sports Column: second place, Fires; and third place, Fires.

Editorial: third place, Greg Harton.

News/Political Column: second place, Harton.

General Interest Column: honorable mention, Becca Martin-Brown.

Humorous Column: second place, Smith.

Freelance Writing: third place, Kat Robinson.

Headline Writing: third place, Jocelyn Murphy, Martin-Brown; and honorable mention, Murphy, Martin-Brown.

Single Feature Photograph: honorable mention, Ivester

Single Sports Action Photograph: second place Michael Woods.

Single Sports Feature Photograph: third place, Andy Shupe.

Picture Page/Photo Essay: third place: Ivester.

Best Graphic Design Portfolio: third place; Swindle.

Coverage of Education: third place; Dave Perozek, Brenda Bernet, Holtmeyer.

Other winners from Northwest Arkansas Newspapers publications include:

News Story, Smaller Weeklies: third place, Lynn Kutter, Washington County Enterprise-Leader.

News Story, Larger Weeklies: second place, Kent Marts, The Weekly Vista.

News Story, Larger Weeklies: honorable mention, Lynn Atkins, The Weekly Vista.

News Story, Larger Weeklies: honorable mention, Nick Brothers, The Free Weekly.

Feature Story, Smaller Weeklies: second place, Lynn Kutter, Washington County Enterprise-Leader.

Feature Story, Larger Weeklies: first place, Keith Bryant, The Weekly Vista.

Feature Story, Larger Weeklies: honorable mention, Janelle Jessen, Siloam Springs Herald-Leader.

In-Depth Series Reporting, Larger Weeklies: second place, Janelle Jessen, Siloam Springs Herald-Leader.

Beat Reporting, Smaller Weeklies: first place, Lynn Kutter, Washington County Enterprise-Leader.

Beat Reporting, Larger Weeklies: third place, Keith Bryant, The Weekly Vista.

Sports News Story, Smaller Weeklies: second place, Mark Humphrey, Washington County Enterprise-Leader.

Sports News Story, Larger Weeklies: second place, Graham Thomas, Siloam Springs Herald-Leader.

Sports News Story, Larger Weeklies: third place, Lynn Atkins, The Weekly Vista.

Sports Feature Story, Larger Weeklies: first place, Kent Marts, The Weekly Vista.

Sports Feature Story, Larger Weeklies: second place, Graham Thomas, Siloam Springs Herald-Leader.

Sports Feature Story, Larger Weeklies: third place, Paul Boyd, Siloam Springs Herald-Leader. Sports Column, Smaller Weeklies: honorable mention, Mark Humphrey, Washington County Enterprise-Leader.

Sports Column, Larger Weeklies: third place, Graham Thomas, Siloam Springs Herald-Leader.

News/Political Column, Larger Weeklies: first place, Kent Marts, The Weekly Vista.

Public Notice, Smaller Weeklies: first place, Lynn Kutter, Washington County Enterprise-Leader.

Humorous Column, Larger Weeklies: honorable mention, Louis Houston, Siloam Springs Herald-Leader.

Headline Writing, Larger Weeklies: first place, Graham Thomas, Siloam Springs Herald-Leader.

Headline Writing, Larger Weeklies: second place, Kent Marts, The Weekly Vista.

Single News Photograph, Smaller Weeklies: third place, Lynn Kutter, Washington County Enterprise-Leader.

Single Feature Photograph, Larger Weeklies: honorable mention, Janelle Jessen, Siloam Springs Herald-Leader.

Single Sports Action Photograph, Larger Weeklies: third place, Graham Thomas, Siloam Springs Herald-Leader.

Single Sports Feature Photograph, Larger Weeklies: second place, Graham Thomas, Siloam Springs Herald-Leader.

Picture Page/Photo Essay, Smaller Weeklies: third place, Lynn Kutter, Washington County Enterprise-Leader.

Picture Page/Photo Essay, Larger Weeklies: first place, Keith Bryant and Adam Schaffer, The Weekly Vista.

Picture Page/Photo Essay, Larger Weeklies: third place, Janelle Jessen, Siloam Springs Herald-Leader.

Best Front Page, Larger Weeklies: second place, Herald-Leader staff, Siloam Springs Herald-Leader.

Best Front Page, Larger Weeklies: third place, Kent Marts, The Weekly Vista.

Best Editorial Cartoonist, All Newspapers: second place, Dale Neseman, The Weekly Vista.

Coverage of Business/ Agriculture, Smaller Weeklies: third place, Lynn Kutter, Washington County Enterprise-Leader.

Coverage of Business/Agriculture, Larger Weeklies: first place, Janelle Jessen and Michael Burchfiel, Siloam Springs Herald-Leader.

Coverage of Business/Agriculture, Larger Weeklies: second place, Lynn Atkins, The Weekly Vista.

Coverage of Education, Larger Weeklies: first place, Lynn Atkins, The Weekly Vista.

Coverage of Education, Larger Weeklies: third place, Janelle Jessen, Siloam Springs Herald-Leader.

Coverage of Tourism, Smaller Weeklies: third place, Lynn Kutter, Washington County Enterprise-Leader.

Coverage of Tourism, Larger Weeklies: second place, Herald-Leader staff, Siloam Springs Herald-Leader.

Coverage of Health/ Medical, Smaller Weeklies: third place, Lynn Kutter and Mark Humphrey, Washington County Enterprise-Leader.

Coverage of Health/Medical, Larger Weeklies: first place, Janelle Jessen and Michael Burchfiel, Siloam Springs Herald-Leader.

General Excellence, Larger Weeklies: second place, Siloam Springs Herald-Leader.

General Excellence, Larger Weeklies: third place, The Weekly Vista.